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How does an inmate with mental health concerns end up in indefinite segregation? By asking for it

By Victoria GibsonStaff Reporter

Wed., Aug. 16, 2017timer4 min. read

How does an inmate in Ontario jail, marked for mental health assessments over multiple court appearances and with a self-identified history of mental health concerns, wind up in segregation indefinitely without a criminal conviction?

He asked for it.

With only months left before Ontario is set to introduce new legislation for a promised reform of their corrections system — and within weeks of an expected independent advisor’s report to guide their work — Michael Storms has been awaiting trial from segregation for 49 days and counting as of Wednesday.

Storms is charged with forcible confinement and uttering threats in a hostage-taking at a Toronto massage parlour on June 28.

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“The plan is for Mr. Storms to remain in segregation indefinitely,” Storms’ lawyer Caryma Sa’d told the Star, adding that the arrangement at Toronto South Detention Centre came at the 35-year-old inmate’s own request.

Although Ontario capped disciplinary segregation at 15 days last fall, Storms is in administrative segregation — a gray area that may be addressed in the coming report and legislation, but that, for now, doesn’t have a limit.

Administrative segregation is allowed in Ontario if a jail superintendent believes the inmate is in need of protection, if the inmate is a threat to the security of the institution or other inmates, if the inmate was alleged to commit serious misconduct or upon their own request.

Canada is currently seeking to eventually limit administrative segregation in federal prisons down to 15 days. But Ontario is still working out what to do about the practice.

International ire has been raised over Canada’s use of both disciplinary and administrative segregation. In 2012, the United Nations Committee Against Torture expressed concern over Canada’s “often extensively prolonged” use of segregation, “even for persons with mental illness.”

They urged the country to limit both types of segregation to a last-resort, and to avoid it entirely for those with serious mental illnesses.

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Storms revealed a history of mental health concerns when he called the Star during the hostage-taking, and later elaborated in a letter to the newsroom from inside segregation.

“Look man, I don’t know. When I say I need help, I need help, right? And jail’s not going to help me,” Storms said over the phone, alleging surveillance dating back nearly two decades by federal agencies leading to mounting stress and attempts to seek medical attention for his mental state.

Over the course of multiple court appearances following his arrest, judges and justices of the peace asked for Storms’ mental health to be assessed. Sa’d is currently weighing the option of requesting his case be moved to mental health court, and is waiting on his medical records.

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To her knowledge, no diagnosis has been formally made inside the jail.

Since arriving at Toronto South, Storms has met with psychiatrists and counsellers, his lawyer said. But there was some distrust between her client and the institution’s health team, so Sa’d is in the process of trying to find someone to assess him independently.

She added that her client had been moved cells four times within segregation.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission reported data in 2015 that revealed nearly 40 per cent of provincial inmates placed in segregation during the latter portion of the year had a mental health alert on their file.

Both Howard Sapers, the independent advisor to the provincial corrections ministry, and Ontario Ombudsman Paul Dubé raised serious concerns about the province’s segregation practices this spring. Dubé released a report into the tracking and review processes of segregated inmates, and Sapers released his interim corrections report, which focused specifically on segregation.

Dubé’s report noted that 52 per cent of inmates who had been continuously segregated for 30 days or longer in 2015-16, like Storms, had requested it themselves. The 2015 statistics from the Ontario Human Rights Commission also revealed that only 4.3 per cent of segregations were ‘disciplinary.’

“In practice, (segregation) means confining individuals to a six-by-nine foot cell for 22 or more hours a day, with little human interaction,” Sapers wrote in his report, though he added that inmates in administrative segregation are officially to have “as far as practicable” the same benefits and privileges as non-segregated inmates.

The Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services was unable to publicly address Storms’ case due to privacy restraints, but spokesperson Andrew Morrison did discuss the ongoing reform of correctional services.

Short-term plans for the government currently include “enhancing the oversight and governance of the provincial adult corrections system, and exploring options to shift oversight of health care services,” he said.

The shift would move oversight from the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

“Ensuring that all inmates, including those that are most vulnerable, have access to mental health care and supports are key priorities,” he said.

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